Nikita Nelin was born in Moscow, Russia and immigrated to the U.S in 1989. He has lived in Austria and Italy, and has traveled the U.S extensively. He received the 2010 Sean O’Faolain prize for short fiction, the 2011 Summer Literary Seminars prize for nonfiction, was a finalist for the 2017 Restless Books Immigrant prize, and was shortlisted for the 2011 Faulkner-Wisdon Short Fiction prize. His work has appeared in Southword Journal, Catamaran Literary Reader, Tablet Magazine, Joyland Magazine, Elephant Journal, Mission at Tenth, Electric Literature, and other publications. Nikita has conducted research through the Harriman Institute as well as translation through Yale Press, and has written on the convergence between fringe and at-large cultural trends for the Hannah Arendt Center. He holds an MFA in fiction from Brooklyn College, and is currently working on his first book.

"Southwest Passage" Winner of the 2011 Summer Literary Seminars Non-Fiction Prize. Tablet Mag. Can also be found in its extended version on 97pennies For My Mind, under the title "The Most Current History of the Russian Jew""